Super Saturday!

Well after yesterday which saw the washing machine break with kids uniforms entombed until the repair man gets there on Monday; the stove top refusing to spark for no reason and a gazillion other oopsies I decided OUTSIDE was a much, much safer place to be (and happier too!).

We are still harvesting plenty - Radishes, rainbow chard, Native Violet flowers, beans, chives, kale, Red Cos, Frizzy lettuce, coriander, oregano and spinach.












Now I am not sure we published this while we were sowing seeds the other week.  Gourmet Tomatoes - 4 varieties in one pack... have been renamed in this house as fairy seeds since they are glittery too lol but the seedlings aren't quite as spectacular so far! lol

I think we need a bigger garden or I need to hurry up and get my aquaponics up and running and less grass!  Chinese Cabbage Wombok.

Lots of Globe beetroots in a tray.
In the rainbow cups are Tigerella Tomatoes - I am super-duber excited about these as they can give up to 20kg of fruit per plant.

Another super exciting glimmer of life for me.  The tiny green bit?  Goji Berry!!!  I picked some seeds out of the dried Aussie Goji Berries... lets hope they grow ok because I love them! In the clear cup is a Stevia seedling... third time a charm!

 Mixed Squash are up also.  These are a mix of Zucchini and button squash to give us some variety in our every day.
While sorting our seeds we found a whole sheet of Grand-Pops Super Tom's (Tomato) Seeds.  We are extremely excited to find they are all popping up (better than the shop bought I might add!)  So lets hope they are as tasty as Grand-Pops!

 The Grapevine has SPRUNG to life with quite some attitude.  The Tangelo on the other hand has decided to hide from its new surroundings... we have ONE green leaf!?!?  Crossing our fingers it recovers at least enough for me to get it out of its teeny tiny pot!

The basil seeds are a mix and have all started popping up which is a blessing as it seems we can NEVER have enough Basil in this house!  Salads, Pizza and Pasta all beg for tasty fresh leaves.  I threw the remainder of the teeny tiny Amaranth seeds into a tray expecting NOTHING... boy have I been proven WRONG... I am so happy since they were 4 years out of date! 

Silverbeet - Fordhook and Bright Lights and possibly a few Diggers Rainbow Chard.  Again I am flabbergasted with how resilient seeds are!

 We either need a bigger bed or to eat micro greens!  Cauliflower - all year. Turnip. Sugarloaf Cabbages. Rocket - LOTS of Rocket.  Broccoli and Leeks.  Now I know these are all really late but its worth a try!

 These on the other hand were all my out of date seeds - I decided what the heck!  Tatsoi, Mizuna Red Mustard and some I don't know's lol.

 No.... it's not a goat head honest...  (Although it would be good for the garden!) GINGER!  It is beginning to sprout... still no signs of life on the turmeric but fingers crossed X.

 Gold Cameron Apple / Pepino is flowering beautifully!  The first flowers we got did not set fruit as we had that really cold morning the day after they opened... let's hope that is behind us.

Hydroponics!

Wahooooooo!  We have TWO baby tomatoes on Grand-Pops Super Toms! I found them today while I was tying them to their trellis.

 
 Can anyone tell me what I have too much of / not enough of that is causing yellowing on my hydroponic tomato plants please?

 They are definitely growing!

Hydroponic Strawberries!  Yes in pipes - lots of fruit and flowers. 

 My Rhubarb have bounced back after *someone who shall remain nameless* turned off the tap to the NFT pipes!  They are starting to look very happy... let us hope it continues.  Oh and the rocket (arugula) is going to seed so lots of pretty flowers.

 Happy Herbs! Oregano (the little mounds) are picked almost daily - yes I snack on the leaves; pizza, pasta, salads and snacks... and they are still dense and growing strongly!  The Basil has *just* beginning to bounce back after the "winter" chill.  New growth on quite a few... I think it saw me looking at replacing them.

 Rainbow Chard - we need another 50 plants with the amount we are using!  I have spied certain boys snacking on these too... usually right before me collecting them on roast day :-p .  In the new aquaponics pipes I believe we will need at least another 12 plants to be able to keep up.  This is 6 levels of 2.5 meters which gives us about 90 plants plus two grow beds with water cress and tomatoes.  With the expansion I am planning will be 4 levels of 12+ meters which should give around 250 - 288 spots for plants which will help fulfil our salad and stir-fry greens as well as more Rainbow chard.  So that is the plan... to make the most of what we have.

 Self sown Red Cos, a bit of thyme and there is some spinach hiding behind the rocket flowers too...

 See!  :-)  Juicy and lush!

I am hoping these little beauties turn out to be self sown lettuces... I know the second pic is definitely lettuce but the first one... we can only hope!

Anyways thats an update - oh and we mulched the potatoes some more - Brandon's Ruby Lou's are now a full Foot taller than my Delawares - planted on the same day, at the same time, given the same fertiliser... I wonder if I will catch up? hmmm.  Oh and I dug up my blueberries and put them in pots of Rose / Azalea potting mix as they were struggling with our poor sandy soils.  I then sunk the blueberry pots into the same place they came from.  Only time will tell now... lets hope it makes them happy.

That's it from me for now... Happy Gardening! *hugs* Sarah